First I'll give Knology credit for providing good cable broadband service from the standpoint of uptime and adequate bandwidth. When I'm not having an "issue" with Knology, their service is great.
Now the black eye...
Knology is simply the worst customer service and technical support experience I have ever experienced. To quote another customer, "In terms of customer support, Knology actually makes over-seas call centers look really good! That's no small task." I agree with his take, but would even argue the opposite. They do such a poor job that they make the overseas call centers look bad (though you can usually at least understand the "technicians" as they "help" you.)
They will run you through the diagnostic script that is in front of them, give you a non-answer, and schedule a support visit. If you have a non-standard question that isn't in their script, or doesn't fit their script, you are in for a ride. Strap in...
Back in late November of last year I noticed that mail coming into my server had stopped being delivered (I run my own Linux server at home to support mail, web, etc.) Knology seems to have tolerance for home-based servers. They don't encourage or support them, but they don't actively stop you from running a server either . So, I've had Knology cable modem service for about two years at this point. No problems, reliable service, then things changed.
A couple months earlier we went through the exercise of blocking outbound traffic on port 25 (which I deem a reasonable anti-SPAM measure from residential accounts.) A little bump, but I redirected my outbound mail to Knology's main SMTP mail server and everything works fine again. Most ISPs started blocking mail coming from residential IPs (as specified by each ISP) several months prior to this, so this wasn't a big surprise.
Then November 28th came. Suddenly, no more incoming mail. I couldn't ping my server from the Internet on port 25. I assumed something was blocked, but couldn't be sure. I spent several days and way too many hours on the phone with Knology trying to confirm that they were blocking port 25 incoming on my connection. Nobody could give me an answer. Tech support would only read from their script "Incoming mail is port 110, sir, not port 25." ARGH!!!! (Patiently) Yes, for a POP user, but I'm running my own mail server, so incoming mail is TCP port 25. Round and round, they won't escalate me to level 2 support because I simply don't understand that incoming mail is on port 110.
After a couple dozen calls over a week or so, I finally simplified things. Let's pretend I'm a bit on the Internet. I want to get to TCP port 25 on my home network from the Internet. Is that blocked? "Incoming mail is port 110, sir, not port 25." ARGHHGHHHH!
After extensive troubleshooting and about a week of screwing around with this problem (all of my personal e-mail failing to be delivered to me, the whole time.) someone at Knology slipped up and said "Yeah, port 25 incoming is blocked too."
I went into a tirade about how ridiculous this was and how that had no bearing on preventing SPAM or providing your customer a good experience. You are my Internet Service Provider, not my whatever-Internet-we-feel-like-giving-you Provider. Do I get a discount for my new "reduced service" (now with less function!)?
The end result of all this is that the only option Knology has that supports incoming traffic on port 25 is a Business Account. Business Accounts cost more than twice what I had been paying for my cable modem connection. The only difference between a residential account and a business account is that incoming port 25 traffic is allowed! Remember, I run all this as a personal hobby. There is no business here. Thanks to Knology's new policies (which they didn't bother to announce to their customers) my cable modem access suddenly costs twice as much.
I don't have another cable company to pick from, Southwestern Bell doesn't have DSL to my home, there is no wireless service locally, and I'm not going to do a satellite connection. Knology it is. So I call them up and order a business connection, hoping to be back online with my mail server in a few hours. I finally called back the sales guy at the end of the day. Turns out there provisioning system won't let them provision a "business connection" to my "residential location." Apparently nobody thought this problem through when they decided to build the provisioning system.
Residential connection was $36/mo. (no cable modem rental.) Business connection is $58/mo. Static IP (not available to residential clients) is $16/mo. My reasonable $36/mo. cable modem bill has now mushroomed to $74/mo., more than twice what I was paying. Remember the only difference is incoming traffic to port 25 isn't blocked. That pisses me off. To finish things off nicely, they didn't even change my IP, they just moved it over as a commercial account.
My residential, non-static IP had never changed (DHCP, 7-day lease and my cable modem is always on) in the 2 years I'd been with Knology, but I figured I'd minimize future problems by springing for the Static IP up front. Read here how that blew up in my face a month later.
Knology, the lessons are simple:
- Communicate with your customers, tell them what you are doing. You are affecting their experience when you change your service.
- Realize some of your customers are technical and may use your service more effectively and extensively than others.
- When you displease your customer, they will speak out.
I'd still like to hear from someone at Knology who can explain this poorly-designed product offering, poor technical service, and overall painful customer experience. If anyone at Knology cares, drop me a line: speed (dash) know (at) transmit (dot) net
I am also having problems with Knology blocking my ports, except they are doing it for all except a few, not just 25.
I have Knology and have not had these problems. I have the standard residental Internet service in Huntsville.
I run a mail server with POP & SMTP. I use knology's SMTP server for outbound. I also have a web server, FTP, VNC and a lot of other stuff running. They have never blocked any of my ports. Also, my IP changes only 2-3 times a year.
I have been with them for about 4 years. Any reason my connection should be different than yours?
Thanks for stopping by Wayne. Of course I know of no 'reason' your connection "should be different" than mine. You're asking the wrong party here. If everything is working for you, I recommend you don't call Knology support to ask why... :-)
Everything is working fine for me again since I "upgraded" to a commercial account. I would still like Knology to stand up and address why it is they feel justified in charging twice as much for a residential/hobby user to be able to run their own SMTP at home.
Maybe I'll consider moving up to Huntsville...
Why did Knology not notify users that they are cutting back bandwith for basic internet users. Now you have to pay more just to watch videos off cnn
Dear Annoyances or the person that created this blog. DO NOT CONSIDER MOVING TO HUNTSVILE! Wayne may not be having problems with Port 25, etc. , but I have for months now, and cannot get Knology to fix anything. I AM GETTING SMART TECHNOLOGICALLY NOW WITH HTML, ETC.
I AM GOING TO OUTWIT THEM VERY SOON WITHOUT PAYING FOR A COMMERCIAL ACCOUNT! I'LL LET YOU KNOW.
I am having the same exact issues. Only mine go a nice step further and I am becoming completely enraged over them. Suprised I never saw this blog posting before.
I too run a web/mail server from my house with knology as an ISP. Had postfix working on the server for a while but decided I wanted to give qmail a go as I offered to host some friends' websites off of my server.
Things started getting strange. My internet would cut off for no apparent reason. I would call knology and they would run me through the ringer when all I wanted to know was if this was a neighborhood-wide outtage. Nope, just down for no reason. This then became almost a daily problem with no rhyme or reason. Managed to speak with one rep who had a few brain cells left who suggested there might be an issue with the amplifier on our house. Scheduled a service call and the genius darwin award winner that came to my house, when my internet was back up, did nothing and suggested that I check my routers. Only a tech supervisor could inspect/make changes to the amplifier. He would not do it. Of course knology got a pissed off phone call.
We switched routers and cable modems. Same deal. All the while, I discover 25 is now blocked. No one told me and I got the same answer. "Incoming mail is on 110, you don't need to use 25." (my gawwwwwd.)
Long story short, I have been dealing with this now for the last four months. My friend missed alot of valuable mail that could have helped his young business. I was never expecting robust web service, but at least a stable connection with working email.
So no workarounds and no fix in sight. I guess I am looking for a new ISP now.
Eff knology. They'll go under soon enough.
The whole Knology network is down. Cannot send or receive email or browse. I called the alleged 24/7 customer service number and have been on hold for almost an hour now. I also noticed that Knology added false charges to two of my phone bills.
Knology has some serious problems.
And yet you made it to my blog... Thanks for sharing your experiences with Knology.
I too had this issue and used dyndns.org's mail hop service. I changed to port number from dyndns.org's system to my server at home. viola!! all set
Knology is throttling P2P upload traffic, and is also accepting reports from the music industry about copyright violations. Four reports (they couldn't tell me how or IF they even verify these 'reports') that you've downloaded copyrighted material, and your account will be cancelled. So much for legal due process. This information was given to me by one of their tech support reps.